


A Little Trust Given, A Little Trust Earned, Still a Long Way to Go

by Diary



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Season/Series 03A, Awkward Conversations, Bechdel Test Fail, Disturbing Themes, Episode AU: s03e04 Unleashed, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Handcuffs, Honesty, Late Night Conversations, POV Multiple, Past Allison Argent/Scott McCall, Post-Season/Series 02 AU, Self-Bondage, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-20
Updated: 2016-10-20
Packaged: 2018-08-23 12:54:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8328745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diary/pseuds/Diary
Summary: AU of Unleashed. "Physically, it’ll take a little more time, but just like you, I’ll heal." Complete.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Teen Wolf.

Pulling out of a supermarket parking lot, Allison feels a jolt go through her when she sees a figure walking down the road.

She hesitates.

There’s a pocketknife in one pocket and an electric baton in the other, but still, initiating contact with a stranger, a stranger who looks to be a man, on a rainy night, on a deserted road-

Even acknowledging this could be a terrible mistake, she makes sure the doors are locked, drives up, and slows the car to match his pace.

He looks over, and she sees a faint golden glow. Feeling calmer, she rolls down her window slightly. “Could I help you?”

In response, he jogs in front of the car, she slams the brakes, and he stands under a nearby street lamp.

It’s Isaac Lahey, and she takes several deep breaths. Memories of scared, confused Lydia and the blood-covered slashes on his clothes war for dominance in her mind.

Over under the streetlight, he stares at her. What’s most unnerving is there isn’t anything particular about his posture- no defiance, no fear, no curiosity. She’s not even sure if ‘resigned’ could be applied.

Carefully, she drives over and turns the car so the driver’s side is facing him. “I know you and the rest of Derek’s pack aren’t up to anything. Scott or one of them would have texted me. Say no, and I’ll drive away. Do you want a ride?”

“No.”

Shrugging, she rolls up her window and drives away.

…

She’s almost home when it starts hailing, and an emergency weather advisory plays over the radio.

“He’s not worth it,” she tells herself.

“And residents are continued to be advised to stay inside while the police continue to search for the person or persons who garrotted-”

Flipping off the radio, she heads back to the supermarket.

Eventually, her headlights hit him, and she wonders what in the hell he’s doing in walking in the middle of a road. It’s deserted besides her, but-

He simply stands in the glare of the headlights.

Sighing, she pulls over, braces herself, and jumps out. “In the car, now,” she orders.

She had no plan, and she’s uneasy at the fact she doesn’t need one. She tugs his arm, opens the passenger door, pushes him in, shuts the door, and he doesn’t protest or put up any physical resistance.

Part of her is convinced he’s going to drive away in the car she stupidly left the keys in, but he doesn’t.

Getting in, she shivers when the heat hits her cold, wet skin. “Seatbelt.”

Scoffing, he looks at her with werewolf eyes.

“Right, it’s your safety I’m concerned about, not the fact that, if I’m pulled over, I could get a ticket for you not wearing one,” she snaps.

He puts the seatbelt on, and feeling guilt sweep through her and irritation at this, she puts her own back on. “Where are you headed?”

“I’m not,” he answers.

“Did you and Derek have a fight?”

“He kicked me out.”

This is neither a yes or a no, but it does mean she won’t have to go near Derek’s loft. It also means, if he says no to her taking him to Boyd’s, she has no clue what to do with the orphaned, sixteen-year-old werewolf who once tried to kill her best friend, who she once attacked with Chinese ring daggers, and who is currently dripping all over her seat but showing no outward signs of coldness.

“Boyd,” she tries.

He shrugs.

Abruptly, she remembers the fridge and how sick she felt looking inside it. After it was mostly destroyed, she and Scott tossed it in the river. No evidence of the abuse meant no motive, but it was more than just trying to protect him from being punished for what Matt made Jackson do.

She used to be someone who would protect a person she didn’t even know, and for all Isaac might have deserved what she later did, one of his best friends, a sixteen-year-old, once epileptic girl is dead in part because of her, and she did put two teenagers in her basement and torture them.

No matter how many people she helps save, no matter how much good she does, she’ll never have the right to take pride in the person she once was again.

“Okay,” she says.

She starts driving.

When they get to the apartment complex, she explains, “My dad isn’t home.”

He follows her inside without comment.

“If you want, I’ll throw your clothes into the dryer.”

“Where’s the bathroom?”

Taking him to it, she waits outside and picks up the clothes he slides through the crack in the door.

“I’ll see if my dad has anything that’ll fit.”

“No,” he says. “I don’t want to smell him on me.”

“Okay, well, we have towels in there. And I’ll see if I can get find a recently washed comforter or something.”

“I’ll just stay here until my clothes are dry. If you need in, I’ll wait in the kitchen or something.”

Nodding, and then, realising he can’t see, she says, “Okay.”

After putting the clothes in the dryer, she comes back and slides down onto the floor. “You still in there?"

"Yeah."

"Good. I’m not going anywhere. So, I can sit here quietly, or we can talk. It doesn’t have to be about whatever had you walking around in a hailstorm in the middle of the night. We could play I-Spy or something.”

“You go first,” he says.

…

After he puts on the dry clothes, he comes out. “Thanks.”

“Are you hungry? Or do you just want to crash? We have some pillows we’ve never used that-”

“I’m leaving.”

“In this weather,” she demands.

“Yeah," he dully responds. "I doubt you’re going to try to stop me.”

She takes a deep breath. “You want an apology for me stabbing you? Then- Look, Isaac, the alphas are a threat to all of us.”

“Not to me. I’m leaving.”

Realisation hits her. “You’re just going to walk out of town?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Because, there’s nothing here for me. Derek only cares about Cora, and Boyd only cared about Erica. Scott- he’s always going to take the side of the girl who helped destroy my pack, the one good thing I’ve had since I was little, over other werewolves. You know, I, uh, thought of going to him tonight, but why?”

There has to be a good answer, but to hell if she knows what it is.

“You could leave much easier in the morning, couldn’t you? Or later in the day when it’s not raining and hailing.”

This, she’s sure, is not anywhere near the column of ‘good response’.

“Now’s just as good.”

“I have $200 in cash and a Walmart gift card with about thirty dollars on it. We both know that won’t last anytime at all, but it’s more than what you have. If you stay until morning, I’ll give them to you. I promise.”

There’s a stretch of silence, and finally, he says, “Okay.”

She nods.

“But I’m sleeping in the bathroom. It has a lock.”

“Fair enough,” she says. “I’m going to fix something to eat. Do you want anything?”

“No.”

…

Fixing some leftovers, she takes in how he hungrily eyes them, but true to his word, he sits there while she eats and absolutely refuses to touch any of the food and drink offered.

“Do you care at all about what you tried to do to Lydia?”

“Do you want an honest answer, or will that make you change your mind about the money and gift card?”

“An honest answer.”

“No.”

“I asked,” she mutters.

Letting out a small sound, he quietly says, “No family is perfect. I’ve always been scared of my dad, worried about my mom, and afraid I’d lose Cam someday. And it turned out, my dad locked me in a freezer, my mom is dead, and so is my big brother. But when I was little, I was happy. Because, I’ve always been the type, or I was, who wanted the people around me to be happy. As long as they were, so was I. And back then, for a while, they all seemed to be, and I was, too.”

“Then- I don’t even know how, when, or why things changed. They did, and I’ve been lonely and terrified for years. Derek made me stronger, and he made me believe he cared about me. Boyd and Erica, they did care about me, and the one time I decided- well, she’s dead, and he’ll never get over that. So, when Derek told me that Lydia was killing innocent people, that she was the one who killed my dad, I didn’t have a problem with killing her. The fact she wasn’t, she didn’t- I probably would have felt guilty when I was younger.”

“Thank you,” she says.

Giving her a startled look, he asks, “What for?”

“For truly being honest,” she answers. Looking down, she continues, “I blame myself for Erica’s death. Or at least, I know played a part in it. Gerard was good at manipulation. And if Scott had told me the truth about my mom in the very beginning- But I still did that, and I still stabbed you. It doesn’t really say much about me that- I just wish everyone had been honest, including me. I thought I was protecting her, but Lydia shouldn’t have been isolated. Treated like a nuisance. I should have called the cops when Kate first took me to Derek. I should have made a real stand against my parents instead of sneaking around with Scott.”

Laughing, she wipes at her eyes. “My mom used to say, ‘Should have, would have, could have, what’s done is done, and what’s important is focusing on what can still be done, not what was or wasn’t.’ I used to really believe that and try to live by it, too.”

“Your aunt took you to Derek?”

She explains.

“Oh,” he says.

There’s more silence.

“I blame them more than I do you,” he declares. “The alphas.”

She looks over.

“You hurt her, and maybe, she and Boyd wouldn’t have been caught if they weren’t in the woods, trying to escape you and your dad, but you didn’t kill her. They did. The alphas killed Erica, and they did worse to Boyd than you did. They’re the ones who might succeed in bringing Derek down.”

“And I’m not like you,” he adds. “Or Scott. He let Jackson go. He let us go when we tried to kill Lydia. He isn’t doing anything about Peter walking around free. If I thought I had any chance, I would kill them all. For Erica, for Boyd, for that girl who rescued me. For Derek and Cora, and even for Scott and Lydia and Danny. And if I did, I wouldn’t be sad and guilty.”

“You might make a good hunter,” she finds herself commenting.

He shrugs.

Yawning, she says, “We both need some sleep. I have an idea. Wait.”

After going into her bedroom and changing into a gown, she comes back. “Go to my room. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Giving her a suspicious, confused look, he nevertheless does.

…

In her room, he’s sitting tentatively on the edge of her bed.

She tosses the key on the nightstand.

He looks between her and it.

After adjusting the cuff on her left wrist, she puts both hands behind her back and starts in on the right. “Neither of us trust one another. I don’t know if that could change with time or not, but it’s pouring and hailing outside, and I have school tomorrow. You don’t want to be exhausted before you can even get out of city limits. So,” she nods for him to move, and when he does, she carefully eases stomach down on the bed, “sleep here or on the couch, but stay inside. In the morning, unlock them.”

Hair falls into her face, and she sighs.

Quietly, he says, “Uh- here.”

Gentle hands move the hair and tuck it behind her ears.

Smiling up at him, she says, “Thanks.” She wiggles to get more comfortable. “When I was little, I sometimes slept with parents, but since then, aside from a few sleepovers in middle school, which, I think all involved sleeping bags, I’ve never slept in the same bed with someone.” A wave of sadness at the fact she and Scott never got this hits her. “So, I don’t know if I snore, kick, steal the covers, or any of that. If you want to watch TV in the living room, go ahead, just make sure we don’t get any complaints from the neighbours.”

He nods. “Um, if-if I sleep in here- I don’t sleep with my pants on.”

“Fine with me.”

He moves out of her sight, and she hears the sound of his belt being undone and set down on her desk, the rustle of fabric, the quiet thud of it hitting the floor, and him kicking his shoes off.

Coming back into eyesight, he visibly hesitates.

“I don’t care what you do, but turn off the light, soon,” she orders. “I’m tired.”

“Yeah, me too,” he mutters. Sitting down, he softly touches skin near the handcuffs. “You- you don’t have to.”

“I know,” she says. “But sometimes, something like this is the only way. I don’t trust you, Isaac, but I’m trusting you, a werewolf, not to hurt me, a handcuffed human, you, a boy, not to try anything on me, a girl, tonight. And you don’t trust me. I could get out of these handcuffs if I needed to, but they’d definitely make an unprovoked attack on you much harder.”

Turning off the light, he settles on the other side of the bed.

Based on the lack of any physical contact between them, she imagines he’s almost hanging off the edge of it, but it’s up to him.

Closing her eyes, she begins counting backwards from 100.

…

Arriving home about an hour before daylight,  Chris opens the door to Allison’s room and almost draws his gun.

On her bed, with her hands handcuffed behind her back, Allison lies, and next to her, curled around her as if she were a teddy bear, is a half-dressed Isaac Lahey (a werewolf).

He almost draws his gun, but he sees the key on the nightstand along with the peaceful look on her sleeping face.

I really need to learn to knock, is his first truly coherent thought. It’s followed by: She’s almost eighteen, and look what trying to keep her away from Scott did.

He doesn’t know why his daughter is lying handcuffed with a werewolf sleeping beside her, but he knows she must have agreed to this. He knows he’s going to have to talk to her, later, when the sun is up, her wrists are free, and Isaac isn’t around, just like he knows, if he tries to do anything right now, he risks making the rift between her and him even wider.

Isaac starts to give signs of stirring, and Chris quickly but silently closes the door and heads to his own room.

…

Muttering grumpily against the sounds penetrating her sleep, Allison tries to reach her phone and is fully jolted awake by the bite of metal.

“Here,” she hears Isaac say. His arm reaches over her, and he picks up her phone and turns the alarm off.

Then, the handcuffs are being undone, and she half-hisses and half-sighs at the feeling.

Once she manages to sit up, Isaac is immediately holding a hand under both wrists.

She could have done better. Her reddened wrists are a mixture of sore and numb, and it might just be the light, but she thinks she might have a bruise on the side of her left wrist and the back of her right one.

With his touch almost too soft for her to feel it, Isaac says, “You’re hurt.”

“Physically, it’ll take a little more time, but just like you, I’ll heal."

Nodding, he looks at her with almost soft eyes.

Starting to get up to get the money and gift card, she asks, “Do you want some breakfast before you leave?”

Reaching over, he stops her and takes a deep breath. “Give me a reason to stay.”

She carefully rubs her wrist. “I don’t have some answers that I, that we all, really need. If I absolutely have to, I’ll try to kill the alphas. But if there’s any other way to stop them- Above all, they need to be stopped. I wish I could trust Scott. I want that so badly. But I can’t, anymore.”

“The thing is," he says, "like I said, if I get the chance, I’ll kill them. What happened last night doesn’t mean I’m going to trust you with my life, and it s-shouldn’t mean you trust me with yours. But I will promise you, Allison, that if we work together, I won’t lie to you. And if you promise the same, I’ll trust you. On that.”

“Then, stay,” she replies. “Let’s do something about the alphas and make sure they don’t hurt anymore innocent people. Me, you, and any other help we can get. I’m going to talk to Lydia and see if- and Stiles helped you and Derek during the summer. He might be willing, too.”

“Okay,” he says. “I’ll stay.”

She smiles.

The moment’s broken, however, by a knock on the door. “Allison, sweetheart? I’ve made breakfast.”

“Be there in a minute, Dad!” Looking at him, she whispers, “Why didn’t you- I don’t know, hear or smell or something?”

“I’m not very good at all that, yet!”

“Shush,” she hisses.

“Do you think- he, uh-”

“You’re still alive, and I’m not- I don’t know what he’d do to me, but he wouldn’t be knocking and making breakfast if he knew. Uh-” She notices him pulling his pants on and grabbing his belt and shoes.

“I’m going out the window,” he says.

Relief goes through her. “Good idea.”

“See you at school?”

“Yeah,” she agrees. “Isaac- thanks.”

Opening the window, he says, “You, too. Maybe, someday-” Shrugging, he slips out.

There’s another knock. “Allison?”

She opens the door. “Hey, Dad. When did you get back?”

He briefly looks past her before kissing her forehead. “Earlier this morning. Uh, I made your favourite. Could we talk?”

“Yeah, sure,” she says. “First, though, I have to go to the bathroom.”

Nodding, he kisses her again and heads towards the kitchen.

Hoping he didn’t see the handcuffs, she scoops them up. Thankfully, if he asks, the opened window will be easy enough to explain.


End file.
